Changes of the Slovenian Employment relationships act

First major change is that the administration units from the 1st of January 2009 no longer have to issue employment books. The employers however must issue a certificate of the registry for the social security of the employee, which can be used also for verification of the employment relationship.

Changes in the Slovenian Employment relationships act also relate to different types of discrimination of the employees. One of this is maltreatment or mobbing which is described based on Leymann description from 1995 and refers to any kind of repeating or systematic obvious negative and insulting behaviour or acts to the employee on the workplace. The new Slovenian Penal code also includes mobbing as a criminal act.

Further changes have been made in the filed of concluding the employment contracts. Now the employer can also conclude an employment contract with an employee who doesn’t’ meet the criteria for the employment in case none of the candidates meet the criteria. Also the timeline for the application for the employment is now shorter than 8 days and is now 5 days.

New is also that employee must inform the employer about all the changes of data which are important for executing rights from the employment relationship. There are also new cases in which the employer can demand a competitive clause. The employer is also obliged to give the information about the employees to the professional which performs activities on the filed of safety and health on workplace.

Also employment contracts for the project missions can now be concluded not only for one year but two years. The employers which are employed for shorter work time than full work time are now entitled to a holiday allowance in accordance with their work time. A new type of work at home is now also work on distance which the employee can perform by using information technology.

Burdon of proof is now on the employer’s side in case of termination of the employment contract, when the employment contract is terminated due to ordinary termination reasons. In case of extraordinary termination reasons the employer must give the employee a chance to make a statement.

The changes also provide a new termination reason for the employment contract which can be terminated due to disability which must also be in accordance with pension and disability regulations.

The employer can now in the time period of the termination time inform the employment institution which can start the search for a new employment for the employee.

If the employee is offered a suitable employment which he declines, then he is not entitled to a settlement. There are also two new reasons of extraordinary termination, when the employment contract, is terminated due extraordinary termination reasons. The first one is if the employee doesn’t’ come to work in 5 consecutive days and he doesn’t inform the employer, also the second one is if the employee declines to performer work based on unjustified reasons.

The employers can also not terminate the employment contract to a woman in labour. The changes also clarify the situation of termination of the employment relationship due to health incapability, which is now terminated on the day on which the employee should come back to work. The employment contract can now also be terminated based on a judicial decision and also the compensation is now limited to 18 monthly salaries.

Changes have also been made to the termination periods and on the field of extra working hours, which is no longer 180 hours but 170 hours. On the other hand the employee can give consent to 230 extra working hours. Working time must now be divided by the employer at the beginning of the year.